It has almost been nine months since the last time I wrote. I can’t really believe that this blog fell to the wayside so easily… I could’ve made a baby in the same amount of time.

I last wrote about being back in Fredericton and Jeff being with me and not in Regina; that seems like a past era of my life now. Since going back to Fredericton, Jeff and I lived happily while I finished my degree (in chemical engineering for those not that close to me) and Jeff worked through the days so that he didn’t go crazy trying to figure out what to do during the day. That problem may have reared its ugly head again though, more on that later.

Christmas quickly came and with my very meagre exam schedule I had a lot of time off! Jeff drove to Ontario to be with his family for as much time as he could over the break. After I wrote my exams I flew out there to meet them as well! We spent a few weeks there and then drove home to Charlottetown to spend Christmas with my family too. It was a big step in our relationship for Jeff to be away from his family for Christmas and with mine, and as far as things on my side go, spending the break at my house and meeting all of my family. All in all it was a great vacation! There were gifts given, food eaten, fights had, resolutions found, and wine drank. I couldn’t have asked for a whole lot more.

A quick breakdown I know, but that sums it up pretty well I think! I guess at some point during the break was our anniversary as well. But we don’t really know the date and it’s an anniversary of time spent dating so it’s not that crucial yet anyway right?

After Christmas I continued my studies and Jeff kept working. I was focussing most of my efforts on my Plant Design course which involves the complete design of a chemical plant for a client. It’s a full year course (I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here before or not) in which you’re grouped into teams and each team has a client for whom they have to take their idea, technology, or potential new method and design a facility to make it work! Our team designed a new form of biodiesel production plant using a new technology from an Atlantic Canadian company. In a nutshell we took a by-product that normally gets created and used the technology to shift it into its plasma state and then pyrolyzed it to produce heat and energy to be reused in the overall process!
The whole course was a royal pain in the ass, took up all of my time, and usually led us into dead ends and unknown territory; but hey! I’m told that that’s the point. I will admit that I learned a LOT from it.

BioDiesel Fuel

My plant design group at the Iron Ring Ceremony

Oh yeah! I got my iron ring too.. probably should’ve mentioned that.

Iron Ring!

Fast forwarding again, at the end of the year Jeff went back to Ontario alone because, again, I had an exam to write, but mostly because his niece was due to be born! So I went home for a bit, went back to Fredericton, wrote my exam, and flew out afterwards (same as at Christmas time).
I can’t get enough of AJ (Jeff’s nephew, in case you’ve forgotten), he just turned 3 and he’s the absolute best. On top of that was the new baby that Jeff went out early to welcome to the world! Drew was born almost exactly when she was due and is so cute. She’s perfectly well behaved, already has a full head of hair, and has (though not until after we left Ontario) started smiling!

Colouring with my favourite little man

Drew!

I always have a great time seeing Jeff’s parents and going to Ontario to visit his family is always looked forward to. His brother and sister-in-law (AJ and Drew’s parents) are some of the kindest people I’ve met. I should probably consider myself lucky to have that sort of relationship with my boyfriend’s family, though to be honest all that I have to really compare it to is one bad example and the movies, so I don’t really know. Either way seeing Jeff’s family makes me happy every time.

We drove from Ontario to Fredericton, stopping in Edmundston to check out the apartment we’d just started renting (more on that in a bit as well). I graduated with a bachelor’s in chemical engineering with Jeff, my parents, and my grandmother all there cheering me on. I’m getting a little worked up now just thinking about how lucky I am to have had people like that smiling at me as I accomplished one of my life goals.

Parents and Mama.. we were all so photogenic that day….

After graduation, with the help of my parents and Jeff (my grandmother waited back in Fredericton) all of my belongings, as well as Jeff’s, were moved to Edmundston. Now the reason we’ve moved to Edmundston is because I’ve landed a job as a Process Engineer at Twin Rivers Paper in Madawaska, Maine which is only minutes from Edmundston, NB.

Since I’ve sort of started my ‘real’ life, live relatively far from home (a 7 hour drive), and need to cross the border every day I actually bought my first car! A bit scary, but it was a pretty good deal at 0% financing so I decided to go ahead and make my first big purchase! As it turns out, I couldn’t be much happier with my new Nissan!

My new car!

Jeff and I both just got new computers too actually. I was giving myself a graduation present, and since my old laptop was 5 years old I figured a new computer would probably be a good investment. I shopped around for a long time trying to find the right one and ended up with a new HP Pavilion dv6. Since I was giving myself a present and because I was starting a pretty good job soon I decided to go all out and get a really good computer rather than get an ok one and save a few dollars. Turns out it was on sale for a great price and Jeff got one too!

Now I’m here in Edmundston, working in Maine, living with Jeff.. I really can’t complain a whole lot. Having a friend or two my age at work wouldn’t be turned away, but if that’s the only issue then I can certainly live with it for some time. This is where Jeff going crazy trying to find something to do sort of comes back into play again. He doesn’t currently have work here in Edmundston and is going a little nuts trying to find things to do during the day while I’m at work and neither of us know anyone in the city. Have any suggestions for activities?

That’s all for now I guess! I’ll update again soon. I have the time to do it now so I don’t have much of an excuse not to.
Hope you’re all great!